February 2011

February 24, 2011

DALLAS _ Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban thinks some not-so-funny business went down Wednesday when the New Orleans Hornets acquired forward Carl Landry from the Sacramento Kings for guard Marcus Thornton and cash considerations.

The trade will actually cost NBA owners approximately $750,000 because until they can find an owner for the New Orleans franchise, the Hornets are really owned by the NBA. Thus, from Cuban’s viewpoint, the trade doesn’t pass the smell test.

“All I know is if most of the owners in this league can’t take back salary in a deal, the Hornets shouldn’t be allowed to, either,’’ Cuban said. “All I know is that it never dawned to me that we would allow a team that’s basically losing their (butts) to take on salary.

“Again, I’m not saying anybody did something under-handed. I’m just saying when we wrote the rules for whatever it was, somebody forgot the loopholes.’’

Those “loopholes,’’ Cuban said, needs to be fully addressed. He also said: “I’m guessing the expectations wasn’t for a team that we’re subsidizing is going to take on incremental salary. Maybe when the deal’s all done it’ll be dollar for dollar.’’

February 23, 2011

The Mavericks have won 50 games in a row every season for
the last decade, but Mark Cuban knows that great things don’t last
forever.

And he will be willing to rebuild when the time comes. He
just won’t like it. And he hopes it’s not anytime soon, either.

“I’d prefer not to (rebuild),’’ he
said. “But if I had to, I would. When it’s time to rebuild,
it’s time to rebuild. And we’re going to (stink).’’

Yeah, he used a more colorful word than stink.

Interestingly, Cuban has talked to owners like Dan Gilbert
in Cleveland and told them that, no matter how painful a really bad season is,
there’s always a chance to go from “zero to hero’’ when
you get to the draft lottery. Things can change in a hurry. He also said almost
all teams have to hit rock bottom before they turn it around, citing New York,
New Jersey, Cleveland and Oklahoma City, all of whom had to hit serious depths
before turning things around.

Anyway, that scenario for the Mavericks is years away, in
all likelihood.

What mattered more Wednesday night was their showing against
Utah, which was uneven at times, but included some interesting highlights, such
as:

·
58 percent shooting, which marked the fifth game
in a row in which they’ve topped 50 percent from the field. That’s
the Mavericks’ longest streak since late in the 2003-04 season.

·
With his 18th point (out of 23), Dirk
Nowitzki passed Clyde Drexler (22,195) for 23rd place on the NBA’s
all-time scoring list. Nowitzki now has 22,201 points for his career. The next
two players ahead of him on the list are Kevin Garnett and Elgin Baylor,
proving he’s entering some rarified air.

The uniforms said Utah Jazz.
But the Mavericks’ first opponent
after the All-Star break didn’t much look like any of the Jazz teams that
have rolled through American Airlines Center in recent years.
Without Jerry Sloan and without Deron
Williams, the Jazz couldn’t put up the same sort of rock-hard battle they
usually do. When the Mavericks tapped out a third-quarter push, they opened up
a double-digit lead and charged to a 118-99 win Wednesday night.
With the trade deadline Thursday at 2 p.m.,
the Mavericks still looked like a team that doesn’t need much more help.
The Jazz? They looked like a team that had
been gutted. They were down to 10 healthy players after trading all-star point
guard Deron Williams to New Jersey earlier in the day for former Maverick Devin
Harris and rookie Derrick Favors.
Peja Stojakovic had half the
Mavericks’ points in a 14-4 blitz that set them free with a 77-67 lead.
It great to 101-83 in the fourth quarter and the Mavericks had little trouble
from there.
Dirk Nowitzki had another efficient
offensive night with 23 points on just 15 shots. Stojakovic nailed four of five
3-pointers and finished with 18 points as seven Mavericks reached double
figures. It was their biggest victory margin of the season.
If there was a negative, it was a defense
that gave up a high shooting percentage to the shorthanded Jazz and the slew of
turnovers the Mavericks had, many unforced.
Even so, they now have won 14 of their last
15 and continue to look like they are ready for the playoffs now, even though
there are 25 games left in the regular season.
Meanwhile, the other side of the equation
was much different.
The Jazz players were floored by the trade
of Williams, who went to high school at The Colony just north of Dallas.
It would be wrong, two Jazz players said, to
categorize Williams as a malcontent.
“We’ve been through some stuff,’’
Jazz guard and former Maverick Raja Bell said. “It all started really
quick. First with Jerry and now with Deron, it’s been a lot to digest.
It’s hard not to let your motions get involved.
“But I don’t think
there’s a bad guy in this situation. All of the things that happened came
from competitiveness. And I can tell you that anything about Deron being the
bad guy is unfair.’’
Bell isn’t the only one. C.J. Miles,
the Skyline product, echoed Bell’s sentiment.
“I don’t think he was completely
unhappy,’’ Miles said. “I just think he had some bad moments.
Him and coach (Jerry Sloan) had their thing. And there were things from
frustration from us feeling like we should have been playing better.
“Because he was Deron
Williams, it was made more known. If he’s mad, then something must be
terribly wrong. And I think it was just a little frustration that got to him
here and there, as it did everybody because of the way we were playing.
“And now this happens and it
makes it seem like he was this tearing-up-the-locker-room person the whole
year, which is not true. You can ask one through 12 and the coaches. That
wasn’t him. That’s just the way it looked.’’
Eddie Sefko

The trade New Orleans made for Carl Landry on Wednesday cost
the Hornets about $750,000. That’s the difference in salaries –
pro-rated, of course – in getting Landry for the players they shipped to
Sacramento.

More accurately, it cost the rest of the NBA about $750,000.

The Hornets are owned by NBA until a new owner can be found.
That extra salary isn’t much in the NBA scheme of things, but it’s
still money that the other NBA teams who are over the luxury tax have to
reimburse to the Hornets, which doesn’t sit well with Mavericks’
owner Mark Cuban.

“All I know is that if most of the owners in this
league can’t take back salary in a deal, then the Hornets shouldn’t
be allowed to, either,’’ Cuban said. “We’ve allowed a
team that’s basically losing its (assets) to take on salary. I’m
not saying anybody did something underhanded. I’m just saying that when
we wrote the rules, somebody forgot the loopholes.’’

Asked if virtually all owners would frown on taking back
extra salary for anything other than a no-brainer trade, Cuban said:
“Without question.’’

While it’s not a huge sum of money, that’s not
the point, Cuban said. Whether it’s a dime or $10 million, it just goes
against the principle of the matter.

DALLAS _ Mark Cuban was asked tonight if he would allow any of his superstar players to jump over a car in a slam dunk contest, a la Blake Griffin.

“I’d ask him the hood, or the top of the car?,'' the Dallas Mavericks' owner said. “And then I’d step on his toe and break it.’’

Seriously, Cuban said: “I’d be very concerned, obviously. Maybe not with Blake, because he’s a little bit out of the ordinary in terms of his jumping abilities.

“I don’t even want guys playing overseas let alone stuff like that. But when it’s all said and done, for Blake Griffin I probably would have let him. If I had a player that had that jumping ability I would have let him.’’

Griffin won the dunk contest after jumping over a car on his final dunk.

“It was the highest ratings in the slam dunk contest in years, so at least we benefitted from it,’’ Cuban said. “It was actually entertaining.’’

The Mavericks might be getting more than one player back
when the playoffs roll around.

Caron Butler has said he plans on being ready to play by
May, and on Wednesday, rookie Dominique Jones said he, too, expects to be
physically fit by playoff time.

Jones had a screw inserted in his right foot to correct a
stress fracture. He likened the procedure to what Milwaukee’s Brandon
Jennings had done earlier this season.

“And he’s back already,’’ Jones
said. “Playoffs, I’ll be back.

“The MRI made it easy to see. A month ago, it started
aching. I didn’t know what it was. I just thought it was because I was
working out a lot and running a lot. But it was a little crack in my bone. I
really wasn’t playing any this year anyway so the best thing was to get
the screw in there now and make sure it’s taken care of. I should be out
six more weeks, eight more weeks.’’

The surgery was the most prudent way to go, Jones said. He
wasn’t in the Mavericks’ playing rotation and had spent as much
time with the Texas Legends of the D-League as he had with the Mavericks.

“It was good to take care of it now,’’ he
said. “I could have sat out for a month and let it heal that way, but
then it’s something that could have recurred. So just put a screw in it
and make sure it’s right.’’

DALLAS _ The NBA world got rocked by this morning's trade that sent Utah Jazz All-Star point guard Deron Williams to the New Jersey Nets for Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, two first-round pick and $3 million.

But Dallas Mavericks center Tyson Chandler said everyone in the free world is also well aware of Monday's trade tht sent Denver Nuggets All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks. Or, are they?

"That’s surprising to me, this whole Deron Williams thing,'' Chandler said after this morning's shootaround. "Obviously you know about the whole Melo deal. Everybody’s heard about that, unless you’re like one of them Geico commericals and have been living under a rock.

The Utah Jazz’s trade of Deron Williams to New Jersey
doesn’t really impact the Mavericks one bit – other than tonight
when the two teams meet.

The Mavericks were never going to get Devin Harris back.
That’s a fact that became crystal clear after he was traded to the Jazz.
The Mavericks weren’t even in the ballpark. As Jules Winfield in Pulp
Fiction would say, they weren’t even playing the same sport when it came
to a trade offer for Harris.

The Nets made out quite nicely. And it’s entirely
possible that the Mavericks helped drive up the price they fetched for Harris
and Derrick Favors. That’s OK. That’s the way this game works
sometimes.

But the Jazz did well, too, with two good, young players and
two perhaps-lottery draft picks.

For those of you who believe the Mavericks missed out on
maybe getting Williams when he becomes a free agent in 2012, that also was like
saying that I missed out on Kim Kardashian when she met Kris Humphries.

The Mavs and Williams wasn’t going to happen, either,
although, by the way, he’ll still be a free agent after next season and
if the Mavericks clear the right amount of room for him, it doesn’t kill
that possibility. But again, don’t hold your breath.

Anyway, when it comes to tonight, the Jazz will have Earl
Watson at point guard tonight and virtually nobody else, with Ronnie Price
uncertain because of a toe injury.

Then again, Jason Kidd knows better than to be fooled by a
wounded animal.

“You can’t overlook them,’’ he said.
“Those guys are going to be prepared to play. They always play hard. We
played them up in Utah a few years ago and they didn’t have any of their
starters and we still lost. So we got to come out and take care of
business.’’

The overriding perception from outside is that The Colony
product Deron Williams came off as the bad guy in the Utah Jazz’s
mega-makeover.

Not true.

Not according to the people who know him best.

Raja Bell, the former Maverick who has always had a real
solid handle on things no matter how touchy they may be, said after the
Jazz’s shootaround today that Williams is not the reason that the Jazz no
longer have former coach Jerry Sloan or Williams himself, who was traded to New
Jersey today.

“We’ve been through some stuff,’’
Bell said. “It all started really quick. First with Jerry and now with
Deron, it’s been a lot to digest. It’s hard not to let your motions
get involved.

“But I don’t think there’s a bad guy in
this situation. All of the things that happened came from competitiveness. And
I can tell you that anything about Deron being the bad guy is
unfair.’’

Bell isn’t the only one. C.J. Miles, the Skyline
product, said he was stunned when Williams was sent to the Nets for Devin
Harris and Derrick Favors, plus two first-round draft picks.

And he echoed Bell’s sentiment that Williams, was in
no way a malcontent.

“I don’t think he was completely
unhappy,’’ Miles said. “I just think he had some bad moments.
Him and coach had their thing. And there were things from frustration from us
feeling like we should have been playing better.

“There was frustration for the whole team. But because
he was Deron Williams, it was made more known. If he’s mad, if he’s
unhappy, then something must be terribly wrong. And I think it was just a
little frustration that got to him here and there, as it did everybody because
of the way we were playing.

“And now this happens and coach Sloan happens and it
makes it seem like he was this tearing-up-the-locker-room person the whole
year, which is not true. You can ask one through 12 and the coaches. That
wasn’t him. That’s just the way it looked.’’